The Filter: Obama Pushes for Tighter Controls on Banks

(March 4) -- With so many news aggregators out there, who can keep up? AOL News filters the filters to steer you to the headlines that really matter.

Skip Those, Read This: The Daily Beast leads with a Reuters report of polls opening in Iraq Thursday for qualified early voters, but to the accompaniment of an explosion -- either a rocket or bomb -- that killed five and wounded 22 at a Baghdad polling station. Another suicide bombing killed seven soldiers and police. With most voting on Sunday, it's the second election in Iraq for four-year parliamentary seats since the U.S. invasion in 2003. The results could affect how long the U.S. continues to occupy the country, according to a New York Times story. Meanwhile, The Slatest leads with more bad news from Iraq: According to doctors in Fallujah, many children are being born with birth defects, the BBC reports. "Doctors and parents believe the problem is the highly sophisticated weapons the U.S. troops used in Fallujah six years ago."

Volcker Rule Returns: The Huffington Post leads with an Associated Press report that the Obama administration is pressuring the Senate to beef up financial reform legislation to include the Volcker Rule, which would limit the size of banks and prevent them from making certain risky transactions. The Volcker Rule, named for former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, was thought to be dead, and a more watered-down reform bill was expected to emerge from Congress. But the White House has not given up on it.

Will it Pass? The Daily Beast picks up a Washington Post report that President Barack Obama is urging Congress to pass health care using a reconciliation vote that would prevent a Republican filibuster. In a speech Wednesday, Obama told an audience of medical professionals that Congress "owes the American people a final vote on health care reform," the Post reports. Meanwhile, the Drudge Report picks up a Weekly Standard article suggesting that Obama's appointment of Scott M. Matheson Jr. to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit may have something to do with health care. Matheson's brother, Jim Matheson of Utah, is a Democratic congressman who voted against health care reform; the White House would like to see him switch his vote this time around. Was "the nomination used to buy off his brother's vote?" the Standard asks.

Catch of the Day: What is it with New York lawmakers? In just the past couple of weeks, Gov. David Paterson and Rep. Charles Rangel have been embroiled in scandals. Now the spotlight is shining on first-term Democratic Rep. Eric Massa, who has announced (like Paterson) that he won't seek another term. Why? According to a Politico report picked up by The Slatest, Massa, who is married, "made unwanted advances toward a junior male staffer." The staffer took the complaints to the House of Representatives' ethics committee. Meanwhile, Massa said health-related reasons, not the allegations of harassment, are behind his decision to not run again.

Guns at Starbucks: The Daily Beast picks up a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article on hometown mega-corporation Starbucks, which finds itself in the middle of a fight over gun control. Gun control advocates have asked the company to ban guns at all of its stores. "Few even cared about Starbucks' gun policy -- or any other company's, for matter -- until January, when word spread that gun-toting advocates of open-carry laws were meeting in coffeehouses and restaurants in California's Bay Area," the Intelligencer reports. While small companies, such as California Pizza Company, have since banned guns on their premises, Starbucks says it won't.